GlobalChild Platform

1. A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State.
2. States Parties shall in accordance with their national laws ensure alternative care for such a child.
3. Such care could include, inter alia, foster placement, kafalah of Islamic law, adoption or, if necessary, placement in suitable institutions for the care of children. When considering solutions, due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child’s upbringing and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background.

– UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The core attributes of Article 20 are:

• Provision of special protection and assistance
• Standards of care
• Nature of care

Each of these attributes can be measured in terms of structural or process implementation or in terms of outcomes achieved through implementation as outlined in the table below. Some indicators, for instance the structural ones, may be common to all attributes. Others are common to two or more attributes, while some indicators may be relevant to one attribute only. An attempt has been made to balance the use of objective and subjective data indicators as well as qualitative and quantitative ones.

These are some ideas that children from around the world shared with us during the Global Child Rights Dialogue (GCRD) project:

1. Goal 4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
   • Target 4.1 By 2030, ensure all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective leaning outcomes.

• Court case statistics
• Household surveys
• Human rights violations reports of CSOs  
• National vital registration systems 
• Primary research by National Human Rights Institutions for Children

See human rights treaties in bibliography.

• Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action. (2013). Inter-agency working group on unaccompanied and separated children. Retrieved from https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/TOOLS-WEB-2017-0322.pdf
• Better Care Network, Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS), et al. (2017). Tracking Progress: Measuring the implementation of the ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children’. Better Care Network and Save the Children. Retrieved from www.trackingprogressinitiative.org 
• Better Care Network, & United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2009). Manual for the measurement of indicators for children in formal care. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/protection/Formal_Care20Guide20FINAL.pdf
• Cantwell, N., Davidson, J., Elsley, S., Milligan, I. & Quinn, N. (2012). Moving Forward: Implementing the ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children’. Scotland, United Kingdom: Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland. https://www.relaf.org/materiales/Moving-forward-implementing-the-guidelines-ENG.pdf
• Cantwell, N., & Holzscheiter, A. (2008). Article 20: Children deprived of their family environment. In A. Alen, J. Vande Lanotte, E. Verhellen, F. Ang, E. Berghmans, & M. Verheyde (Eds.), A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.Leiden, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
• United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. (2006). Day of general discussion: Children without parental care (CRC/C/153). Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRC/Discussions/Recommendations/Recommendations2005.doc
• United Nations General Assembly. (2010). Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (A/RES/64/142). Retrieved from https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/673583?ln=en
• United Nations General Assembly. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
• United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (UNHCR). (n.d.). The Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI). Retrieved from https://uhri.ohchr.org/en
• UNICEF. (2007). Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Fully Revised 3^rd Ed.). Geneva, Switzerland: UNICEF.

Care placement
The use of an alternative care setting for the care of the child, be it formal (residential, foster, family-like, emergency, transit, group homes, supervised independent care) or informal (kinship care) (UN General Assembly, 2010).

Care setting
“The United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children paragraph 29c: (c) With respect to the environment where it is provided, alternative care may be: (i) Kinship care: family-based care within the child’s extended family or with close friends of the family known to the child, whether formal or informal in nature; (ii) Foster care: situations where children are placed by a competent authority for the purpose of alternative care in the domestic environment of a family other than the children’s own family that has been selected, qualified, approved and supervised for providing such care; (iii) Other forms of family-based or family-like care placements; (iv) Residential care: care provided in any non-family-based group setting, such as places of safety for emergency care, transit centres in emergency situations, and all other short- and long-term residential care facilities, including group homes; (v) Supervised independent living arrangements for children” (United Nations General Assembly, 2010).

Family
“The preamble to the Convention refers to the family as “the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and particularly children” (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2005). The Committee recognizes that “family” here refers to a variety of arrangements that can provide for young children’s care, nurturance and development, including the nuclear family, the extended family, and other traditional and modern community-based arrangements, provided these are consistent with children’s rights and best interests” (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2005) (GC7 para 15).